FACEBOOK USAGE AMONG ARABIC COLLEGE STUDENTS: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS ON GENDER DIFFERENCES

With immense popularity and candid participation, social networking sites (SNS) such as Facebook have great impacts on both commercial and social life. Despite their popularity, research on SNS is far behind the practice. Particularly, research outside of western countries is very limited, given the global nature of SNS. With the young generation in the Arabic world embarking on Internet use, SNS, and particularly Facebook, have become a main arena for their identity construction and relationship development, playing a vital role in shaping future society. The purpose of this exploratory study is to provide descriptive information about the use of Facebook by Arabic college students, with a focus on gender differences in motivations and perceived consequences of Facebook usage. This study represents an initial attempt to tackle the SNS phenomenon in the Arabic world, and its results suggest a promising research opportunity in gender differences in SNS usage patterns. By contributing empirical evidence from the UAE, our study helps develop an understanding of the regional uniqueness in SNS usage.